Thermal pile

[steve-o]

"Piles" - I think I posted this B4-- painful-- ouch

[The_Doctor]

Of all the types laser power meters Ive owned and used..I always go back to using the peltier based ones.

I built my first test board of my modified design today for the gain stage for a TEC sensor. Will test it tomorrow, probably. If it works with the LED meter I want to use it with, it will be proved stable, and I'll post the layout, parts list and schematic in a new thread, if I can work out where the hell to do that.

Re this thread, it's the obvious place, but every time I see it all I can see at first glance is that damn icon. At least it's unique. When I see it I know this thread's been bumped again. That thumb, I guess that would be the ideal sensor for determining the temperature of the interior of the steaming pile? The colour indicates either that it's damn hot, or that it's caught something purulent.

[marconi]

Good one Crow.. LOL

[The_Doctor]

V2 gain stage. Tested working. Not boxed, but ground is solid so it should behave even if the 5V supply is shared between this circuit and an LED DPM. For more detail, look at past posts here in this thread.

One detail not yet added here is the switching for the DPM range. Use a 2 pole rotary switch as cheapest method. I'll be able to supply some really nice switches, I just bought several on eBay. One pole switches the range dividers, the other switches the DPM decimal point position. I might also supply prepared boards TEC's but not the thermal masses, but those are easy to improvise.

Next plan is to try a differentiator to accelerate the response but the main aim is to make it cheap and accurate and easy to set up.